Jan. 14, 2013
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Tina Fey and Amy Poehler host this year's Golden Globes. / NBC

by Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

by Brian Truitt, USA TODAY

Ben Affleck rebounded from the mother of all snubs at the 70th annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony Sunday evening in Beverly Hills, Les Miserables nabbed three honors, and Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence and Anne Hathaway all garnered important wins on the road to next month's Oscars.

Argo won for best drama and, after being a favorite to earn an Academy Award nomination last week and then not getting one, Affleck picked up a best director Golden Globe for the political thriller, besting a field that included Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Quentin Tarantino (Django).

"I truly to God never thought I could be in the same breath as them," Affleck said.

Les Miserables picked up three wins - best musical or comedy, best actor (Hugh Jackman) and best supporting actress for Hathaway. Its total tied for the most of the night with the HBO TV movie Game Change and Showtime drama Homeland.

"I was kicking myself for not getting a flu shot, but it doesn't seem like I need one. I feel great!" said Jackman, remembering one day after a bad Les Mis rehearsal when his wife talked him off the cliff and kept him from quitting the movie musical.

"Baby," he said to her, "thank you for always being right."

After she won, Hathaway began her acceptance speech with one word: "Blerg."

She lauded fellow nominee Sally Field of Lincoln as "the vanguard against typecasting," and thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for her trophy, "this curvy blunt object that will be used forever against self-doubt."

The Steven Spielberg historical drama Lincoln came in leading the field with seven nominations, but only Daniel Day-Lewis won a Golden Globe for his performance as Abraham Lincoln.

"Are you sure there's room for another ex-president on this stage?" Day-Lewis joked after Bill Clinton introduced the film. Clinton remembered the 16th president's "steely resolve and necessary compromises" to end slavery: "We're all here tonight because he did it."

Day-Lewis also lauded his director, Steven Spielberg, who the actor called "a humble master with a quicksilver imagination. You've given me an experience I'll treasure to the end of my life."

Lawrence beat out the likes of Meryl Streep, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench to take home the prize for best actress in a comedy or musical for Silver Linings Playbook.

"What does it say? I beat Meryl!" said a smiling Lawrence when handed the trophy. She thanked co-star Bradley Cooper as well as producer Harvey Weinstein. "Harvey, thank you for killing whoever you needed to to get me up here."

Jessica Chastain won best actress in a drama for her performance in Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. She compared her character to Bigelow: "Two powerful women who allow their best work to stand for them."

The TV film Game Change, about the 2008 election, won for best TV movie/miniseries, Ed Harris was chosen as best actor and Julianne Moore picked up a trophy for best actress in a TV movie/miniseries.

"This was one of my favorite jobs ever," Moore said of being transformed into polarizing Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin.

Damian Lewis won for best actor in a TV series for his role as Homeland's soldier-turned-terrorist Nicholas Brody, while his show won best drama series.

Lewis, who was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Band of Brothers, dedicated the award to his late mother, who is "telling everyone up there how well her son is doing in acting."

His Homeland co-star Claire Danes won the fourth Golden Globe of her career as CIA analyst Carrie Mathison. She was pregnant during much of the season's filming, and thanked her costumer, who "took my pants out every damn week," and her new baby son, Cyrus, for "being so game and fighting this war on terrorists."

Lena Dunham, the breakout writer and star of HBO's Girls, came up huge, winning for actress in a comedy her first time nominated and seeing her show win the comedy category, beating out the likes of Modern Family and The Big Bang Theory.

"I thought that I was going to be a cooler customer if this ever happened," Dunham said after accepting her actress award, her hands visibly shaking while reading her notes. "This award is for every woman who didn't think there was a space for her."

Maggie Smith won for best supporting actress in a TV series for Downton Abbey, and Christoph Waltz garnered best-supporting-actor honors for his role as a bounty hunter in the movie Django Unchained.

He thanked his castmates as well as director Quentin Tarantino, who won for best screenplay. "You know my indebtedness and gratitude to you knows no bounds," Waltz said.

Kevin Costner, who won for best actor, miniseries or movie for Hatfields & McCoys, remembered his first time at the Golden Globes, where he watched a tribute to Gregory Peck. "It was a good night that night to watch that body of work. It's been a great ride," said the actor, who won a Golden Globe for best director in 1991 for Dances with Wolves.

Austrian Amour director Michael Haneke, a surprise Oscar nominee for best director last week, accepted the award for best foreign language film.

"I never thought I'd get an award in Hollywood from an Austrian," said Haneke after Arnold Schwarzenegger handed him the Golden Globe trophy. "The Globe is for me and the crew, and the Globe is for my two fantastic actors," Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva.

In two musical categories, Life of Pi composer Michael Danna was honored for best original score, and a gobsmacked Adele won for best original song with Skyfall from the James Bond film of the same name.

"It's very strange to be here," said the nine-time Grammy winner and first-time Globe nominee. "Thank you very much for letting me be a part of your night."

Foster looked back on her 47 years in cinema, honored her mother and her children, and talked about the value of privacy as a celebrity by mentioning her life in front of the camera. "That's reality-show enough, don't you think?"

There were lighter moments, too. "I was going to bring my walker tonight, but it didn't fit the cleavage," the 50-year-old joked. She called the Golden Globes the "party of the year, and tonight I feel like the prom queen."